As the week started, Yokozawa found himself with fewer and fewer opportunities to interact directly with Kirishima, until several days had passed without them speaking face to face at all. They texted and e-mailed, sure, but they hadn't actually spoken in days.
Hiyori was spending the week with her grandparents, or on some evenings, Kirishima's mother came to spend the night at their place, apparently. As such, Yokozawa couldn't exactly pop in like usual, so he hadn't been able to see Hiyori or Sorata of late either.
However, this was hardly unusual; even Kirishima, who made every effort to leave work on time each day, was swamped with work at the end of every month's cycle. With the upcoming fair to worry about on top of everything, Yokozawa hadn't a moment to breathe either.
"...Huh?"
He struggled to grasp what his boss had just told him—but the cogs in his mind had ground to a halt. He'd been called into his superior's office under pretense of needing to 'chat'.
Ignoring Yokozawa's gaping confusion, the man continued: "This is all still under the table, you understand—nothing's quite set in stone yet, but we're confident you're the man for the job. We'd like you to put those skills you've honed working in the Comics Division to better use elsewhere. So, that being the case, you should probably prepare yourself."
"I...see..."
"Though of course, nothing's going to be happening until at least after this fair's over, so you shouldn't worry too much over it for the foreseeable future. Just focus on what's on your plate for now."
"...Yes, sir..." he responded dully, leaving the office in a daze.
His mind was utterly blank—this had come completely out of left field. Pathetically enough, he still hadn't quite managed to wrap his head around what had just happened.
As his boss put it, they were thinking of changing up the division he was assigned to; he'd be moved from Comics, where he worked now, to the Literature division. Even if it wasn't set in stone just yet, the fact that they'd brought up the suggestion to him meant it was fairly close to being settled now.
And it wasn't exactly a strange idea; quite the opposite, in fact—it was stranger still that he'd only ever worked in Comics since joining the company.
"Literature, huh..."
He wasn't complaining about the position he'd be filling, by any means. It was only...he'd been involved in Comics for so long, so he couldn't shake the feeling that it'd be tough saying goodbye to the job.
There was nothing to think about; he only had one option. As an employee working for a company, he had no choice but to comply with its policies. He wouldn't always have the luxury of doing exactly the work he wanted to be doing. His salary was earned by doing his job as an employee of this company, so if Human Resources decided that he ought to be working somewhere else, he had a duty to do as ordered. Even if it wasn't a decision he was happy with.
On the bright side, at least he wasn't being transferred out of Sales altogether; as he saw it, Sales and Marketing were his calling. He could never have cut it in the Editing or Graphics divisions, which required some measure of creative talent, nor did he think himself fit doing deskwork in the production departments. A job that called for some legwork was definitely the best fit for someone who really threw himself into his work, like Yokozawa.
"Oh, welcome back, Yokozawa-san! What did the boss want?"
Yokozawa froze for a moment at Henmi's innocent question. "Huh? Oh, uh—just wanted to know how the fair preparations are going." They'd discussed the fair, after all, so it wasn't lie—but it was probably best not to bring up the prospect of changing divisions with Henmi until things were settled.
"Just one more month until it starts! I'm getting dizzy from all the work that's left to be done, though. It's hard enough putting together a normal fair, but this time around we're involving everyone!" Genres typically held their own fairs separately at the end of the year, but this year, the entire company of Marukawa Shoten was cooperating to put together a fair—as dictated by the company president, intent on tearing down the divisions between genres. He wanted readers to be exposed to genres they might never have experienced before and had several ideas on how to go about such a grand endeavor.
However, while most idle onlookers might see the fair as a fun, flashy 'festival', for Yokozawa—responsible for putting the whole thing together—it was a source of much trial and tribulation.
"I suppose; though, while I wasn't sure we'd be able to pull it off initially, it seems to be coming together nicely. Gotta start putting my weight into getting Za Kan off the ground soon, though." Along with the winter fair coming up, plans were already in the works for a separate promotion of back issues of Za Kan and its upcoming movie release. That, combined with the fact that a new volume would be released just before the movie came out, meant the campaign would be a showy one indeed.
This would be a great opportunity to take advantage of the movie's release to increase comic sales; they'd slap a new cover on older volumes, run related promotions in the new volume and magazine, and dominate corners of cooperating shops. And it would be impossible to succeed with this plan without the aid of the editing department. Now that they'd secured agreements to cooperate from several bookstore chains, they were planning on going country-wide with the promotion—and production of posters and panels for the campaign was already underway.
"Oh yes! There's that as well, isn't there! They're in the final phase of review for the movie now, aren't they? I'm excited to see it in theaters!"
"They'll have the advance premiere soon."
"Are you going to see it?"
"If I can find the time, yeah."
"That's great! I sure would like to go, too..."
"Well lucky for you, I was told to invite some others from Sales, so pass the word around to anyone else who'd like to check it out."
"Awesome! I'm really excited now!"
"Seems they'd like to hear some unbiased thoughts, so be sure to get a good look."
"I'll keep both eyes peeled as if I were a real film critic ready to write a scathing review! Oh, that reminds me—whatever happened with the plans for that promotion involving the new packaging and volume releases?"
"Nothing's set in stone yet; everyone's got their hands full prepping for the movie release. Though I'd really like to at least get some rough idea of their plans..."
The Publishing and Animation divisions were completely separate, which meant their Sales representatives were separate as well. Media mix involved cooperative involvement of multiple forms of media—which required working with divisions they'd never met before in order to get work done. That was easier said than done, of course, but the payoff was substantial.
"Shall I put together a few proposals myself? The target audience is readers of the original canon, correct? I don't expect they'll stray too far from there."
"Yeah, you're right; scrounge something up if you have the time. We can't let this opportunity to boost sales slip by."
"I'll do my best!" Henmi returned brightly, brimming with confidence and energy. He'd been something of an airhead (albeit a motivated one) when he'd first joined the company, but by now, Henmi was quite reliable, and Yokozawa reflected that he didn't really have much left to teach the guy.
"You've been in pretty high spirits lately; something good happen?" Reflecting back now, Henmi had seemed to be in a suspiciously good mood all week. He was always great at lifting spirits, but lately he'd been practically walking on sunshine.
"Oh, you noticed??" His eyes sparkled, and Yokozawa found himself walking right into his trap; he apparently was more than eager to discuss his personal life.
"Not so much noticed as...well, it was pretty obvious..." Yokozawa was starting to regret even asking; he should've just kept his big mouth shut.
"Actually...I got myself a girlfriend! I met her through a mutual friend, but she's just wonderful! We get along, we love the same authors—"
"All right, I've had enough of hearing you sing her praises already," he cut off, stopping Henmi before he got going on what would likely be a never-ending tangent.
Henmi dropped the subject with a pout. "Aww, you could at least hear me out a little..."
"Yeah yeah, some other time." They couldn't waste time on long conversations at the office; the workplace was exactly that: a place for doing work.
For a moment, Kirishima's face popped into his mind; a pang shot through his chest when he considered all of the ridiculous stunts the guy had pulled thus far, but at least it hadn't started to affect his job performance. As he saw it, though, the office was a place where one ought to avoid such extravagant displays, and he always made every effort to resist Kirishima's advances; it wasn't like he gave involuntarily.
He then immediately realized, here, how desperately he was trying to excuse his actions, which only served to depress him even further.
"All right—but you definitely have to listen the next time we go out drinking!"
"Why on earth do you want to gab about her that much?"
"I dunno—I guess I just want others to share in my happiness?"
"Then hell no," he returned, immediately withdrawing his previous offer of drinks. Having just secured a girlfriend, Henmi seemed to be all but sprouting flowers from the top of his head.
"Ah, so mean!! You're the one who asked, Yokozawa-san!"
"I never said I wanted to listen to you drone on and on about your girlfriend." He'd asked what had Henmi in high spirits, sure, but he hadn't wanted any details really—and he didn't want Henmi getting the wrong idea.
"This isn't 'droning on', it's merely...an announcement!" The way he was speaking so seriously about things that most people only mumbled about while half asleep left little doubt: there was a whole damn flower bed sprouting up there. If he just left Henmi to his own devices, he'd settle down soon enough, so Yokozawa resolved not to engage in any idle conversation for the foreseeable future.
"Whatever—stop running your mouth and get to work."
"Yessir~"
Realizing he needed to take his own advice, Yokozawa settled before his desk and opened up his e-mail program, finding he had unread messages seeking his confirmation on several matters. This, after only being away from his desk for a few minutes, even! He quickly scanned the lot of them, opting to reply only to the ones that were most important for the time being.
Among the unread messages was one from Kirishima; from the looks of things, it was a purely work-related e-mail, consisting of confirmation of minor items and reminders, but it was more than enough to bring back to the surface the stagnating feelings he'd been trying not to think about.
"........."
Right now, his job was to sell comic books; even if he moved to Literature, he'd still be using the know-how he'd gained through this position to sell books. But despite understanding that brooding over the matter wouldn't change anything, he couldn't help the same thoughts running round and round inside his head.
For the reason he was so loath to accept this change in position...was because of his feelings. Despite knowing, logically, that there was nothing to be done.
What would Kirishima say, at a time like this?
He seemed on the surface to behave rather childishly at times, but on the job, he was the Editor-in-Chief who commanded and managed his editors. Here, he wore the face of a stern superior, a far cry from his personality in his off hours.
Perhaps he'd try to convince Yokozawa to accept everything... This was hardly something he needed to bother Kirishima with or come to him wanting to discuss, but if he could talk about it with him, he might be able to sort out his feelings on the matter somehow—
But as soon as he considered that, he immediately remembered Kirishima's current schedule. "...He's damned busy right now, isn't he..." He'd even told Yokozawa just last weekend that he'd be swamped for the foreseeable future with the upcoming movie release. Even Hiyori, a mere elementary school child, had offered to go stay with her grandparents. Now was not the time for Yokozawa—a grown man—to be needy.
"Did you say something, Yokozawa-san?" At Henmi's question, Yokozawa realized he'd been muttering to himself; perhaps this whole matter had been a greater shock to his system than he'd realized.
"It's nothing. Sorry—but I need to step away for a moment. If anyone calls, tell them I'll call back soon."
"Will do."
He then stood, leaving Henmi to look after things, and with his cell phone and change purse in hand, he headed to the break room on the third floor. If he'd thrown himself into work like usual, he would've forgotten about troublesome matters like this by now—but work itself was the issue here.
"...Tsk." He'd unconsciously started heading for the smoke room—before realizing halfway there he hadn't brought his cigarettes with him. Or rather, that he was refraining from smoking for the time being. A large reason for his 'break' from smoking was health-related, of course, but more to the point, he was doing it out of consideration for Hiyori. It was uncomfortable barging into their home reeking of tobacco when even Kirishima didn't smoke these days.
He hadn't felt any real urge to light up lately, but today he was feeling particularly irritated, and hoping to take the edge off with some caffeine instead, he slipped a hand into his pocket to pull out his change purse. Pressing the button for black coffee, he waited for the paper cup to fill—when a nearby conversation caught his ear.
"Hm...?"
It seemed there was someone in the break room already. If it looked like they were doing something work-related, he probably ought to avoid disturbing them and find someplace else to relax. He peeped inside surreptitiously—then swallowed a sharp breath when he realized who it was. There, standing with paper cup in hand and chatting animatedly, were Kirishima and Yasuda.
"—"
There was no logical reason to be so nervous, but his feet still froze in place. The pair seemed to have a rather peculiar air between them, which made Yokozawa loath to barge his way inside. If he wasn't going to call out to them, then he ought to do as he'd initially planned and just find someplace else to cool his heels—but for some reason, he couldn't tear his eyes from the pair.
He knew that Kirishima viewed Yasuda as nothing more than a coworker and contemporary, and while he did recognize Yasuda's talent and often sang his praises, these were not particularly special feelings. Even now, they were only standing there together because of a work-related matter. He understood, deep down, that one's public and private lives—work and personal matters—were separate.
"........."
But...Yokozawa and Kirishima could only interact as they did, on a day to day basis, because of work; once Yokozawa changed positions...those interactions would dwindle down to nothing. He loved his job with Comics Sales, and it wasn't simply the chance to interact with Kirishima that he liked—he genuinely enjoyed working with the man.
Working with Takano was a worthwhile endeavor as well, but Kirishima had age and experience on Takano, leaving Yokozawa with a completely different sense of accomplishment on a job well done. Honestly, he really didn't want to give that up.
What he was feeling for Yasuda right now...was probably jealousy—jealousy over that. They had something between them that they mutually understood as contemporaries who'd joined the company together and interacted over the years.
"That reminds me—you're doing the comic serialization of Oosaki Ryou's piece, aren't you?"
"You already know? That certainly spread fast."
Yokozawa missed his chance to make a graceful exit, unwittingly eavesdropping on their conversation. He knew it was impolite, but he couldn't help being a bit curious and so indulged.
"Everyone says I've got long ears; Oosaki-sensei went to college with you, right?"
"Wait, you even know that? I only just realized it myself talking with Chiba-san earlier!" 'Chiba' would be Oosaki's managing editor. From the sound of their conversation, it seemed Kirishima hadn't yet met with the author personally. Still, it was something of a surprise to hear that Kirishima and the author had met before; Kirishima certainly seemed shocked himself, but just how close hadthey been?
"You two must've been close, for Oosaki-sensei to ask you to head up the comic version personally."
"Not at all, actually; we had maybe one lecture together? So we saw each other on occasion, but outside of class, we never interacted at all. They never even came out drinking with us, so I had no clue what their plans after college were."
"So I guess you really are just former classmates, huh?"
"Yeah, pretty much. I didn't really hang out with chicks all that often, after all."
"Wait—Oosaki Ryou isn't a man?"
"Assuming the real name I heard from Chiba-san was correct, she's definitely a woman."
"Wow, I never realized. Her debut pieces were pretty gritty suspense thrillers, so I just assumed. What sort of woman is she?"
"I know this is gonna make me sound like a jerk, but I honestly don't really remember what she looks like. She was kind of a bookworm—wore glasses, I think. I remember she always had her nose buried in a textbook."
"Huh? That's the closest relationship you two had, and yet she went out of her way to ask for you to head up her comic publication?" Yokozawa silently agreed with Yasuda's suspicion; this hadn't been a frivolous request, either. Marukawa had been desperate for approval for alternate medium releases of Oosaki's work—and Kirishima's involvement had been one of the stipulated conditions to obtain that approval. Truthfully, Kirishima had never had the option to turn the job down.
"It's baffling to me, too. Though I dunno—maybe she's just feeling a little nostalgic?"
"I can't imagine she'd bring personal requests into a work project just for that—hey, maybe she had a crush on you?"
"!!" Yasuda just casually blabbed the one suspicion that had been creeping at the edges of Yokozawa's mind, and his entire body froze at the blatant frankness with which the man spoke, holding nothing back.
"Nah, no way. I mean, we hardly ever spoke; I seriously doubt that's the case."
"Hey, everyone who's ever tried to seduce me has been someone I've never even spoken to, you realize?"
"Please don't even think to try and draw parallels between the two of us. Besides, everyone who throws themselves at you pretty much just wants to be your slave."
"Brave words for a man who's only pursued by loopy stalkers. Though I guess you've finally landed yourself a good one—but I have to admit, the fact that he's a guy did throw me at first."
Yasuda's comments sent a shudder down Yokozawa's spine; the 'good one' he spoke of was none other than Yokozawa himself.
Deciding he couldn't eavesdrop on this conversation any further, he knocked back the rest of his now lukewarm coffee and turned on his heel to leave, annoyingly more on-edge than he'd been when he came.
"—"
His mind was a mad mess—but what was he really getting worked up over? Even if he hadn't had the issue of his change in work position to deal with, he still would've been discomfited by the topic of Kirishima and Yasuda's conversation—and then of course there was the fact that he didn't feel entirely comfortable with their relationship to begin with. He'd never exactly been a calm sort; he knew this. But still—had he always been this narrow-minded, jumping to conclusions?
It seemed nothing had changed in these months together with Kirishima, and he felt a pang of irritation at his complete and utter lack of composure. Maybe it would be best...to just place some physical distance between the two of them, to learn to better manage his public and private lives—so that he didn't repeat the same mistakes he'd made before.
But as he stood there, arguing with himself, someone called his name: "Yokozawa."
"!!" It was the fact that Yasuda had been the one to call out to him that shocked him the most. He turned, attempting to suppress his discomfort. "Did...you need something?" Facing him straight-on like this, he was reminded anew of just how handsome the man was—but he was finally starting to get used to it.
"What, do I need a reason to speak to you?"
"No, that's not what I..."
"Well, as it happens, I do have a reason—mind if I have a word?"
"Huh?" he responded dumbly to the sudden request.
"C'mon, you can spare 10 minutes, can't you? We need to talk, so come with me."
"A—about what?"
"If you don't snap it up, Kirishima'll come."
"!!" At Yasuda's urging, he reflexively scrambled into the elevator.